Showing 1 - 10 of 11
It could take 1 Danish soldier in Greenland
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/01/2026
» In 1910, Henry Wilson, the British army officer charged with planning for a possible war with Germany, visited the French officer doing the same job in Paris, Ferdinand Foch. The Anglo-French alliance was still a tentative, semi-secret thing, so Wilson asked Foch, "What is the smallest British military force that would be of any practical assistance to you?"
Arab fraternity weakens and hegemons rule
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/11/2025
» 'This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper," wrote T S Eliot in 1925, probably responding to the profoundly unsatisfactory aftermath of World War I (although with a poet, you never really know). At any rate, it's happening again, this time in the Middle East.
Too long in power a bad idea for leaders
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/07/2025
» Leading an entire country for a few years is a steep learning curve, but it's useful experience. Being in power for a dozen years makes most leaders arrogant and careless, but some remain more or less functional. Being in power for more than 30 years just makes you stupid. Consider Cambodia's Hun Sen and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Did the West cause the war in Ukraine?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/06/2024
» There is one thing almost all populist nationalists agree on: the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the continuing carnage there was the fault of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). If Nato had not expanded to Russia's borders, it would all still be peace and love in Europe.
Turkey and its hundred-year culture war
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/05/2023
» Turkey's elections are fairly free, and there is going to be one this Sunday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been in power for two decades, and he should really lose by a landslide. Imagine what the United States would be like if Donald Trump had been in power for 20 years, and that's what Turkey looks like today.
How the United States can avoid war with China
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/02/2023
» 'I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight [with China] in 2025," declared US Air Force Gen Mike Minihan last weekend. He didn't mention what his elbow told him, or if he ever consulted his head on the matter.
Ardern's exit and the persistence of other politicians
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/01/2023
» 'All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs," wrote British politician Enoch Powell half a century ago -- and then proceeded to demonstrate the truth of this proposition in his own lengthy but undistinguished political career.
Another Nobel Peace Prize winner goes rogue
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2021
» Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner in 2019, waited the statutory two years before launching his genocidal war in Tigray last November.
Netanyahu has nearly finished his grim mission
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/09/2019
» Benjamin Netanyahu's work is almost done. If he wins tomorrow's election and forms yet another government (he is now the longest-serving Israeli prime minister), he will put a stake through the heart of the "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was born in the 1993 Oslo peace accords. Hamas should send him a gold watch for long service.
Iran: 'Boots on the ground' war unwinnable
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/05/2019
» 'After a long debate, the highest levels of the military could not forecast a way in which things would end favourably for the United States," said Richard Clarke, counter-terrorism adviser in the White House under three administrations. That was back in 2007, and he was talking about the Pentagon's attempts to come up with a winning strategy for a US war with Iran. No matter how they gamed it, the US lost.